Listed Building record MDO14458 - The Manor House, Purse Caundle

A 15th century manor house in grounds, rebuilt and extended during the 16th century and altered during the 19th and 20th centuries. The building has rubble-stone walls with ashlar dressings, and stone-slate roofs with stone gable-copings.

An important late Medieval manor house, the main block of which was built towards the end of the 15th century. The east front dates from a remodelling of the late 16th century. <2,3>

'Manor House', name confirmed by tenant, is now subdivided into several dwellings. A large structure maintained in excellent condition, it comprises a late 15th century hall open to the rafters, with a long, cross-wing at the south end, of late 16th century date, and with late 16th century extensions to the east side and to the north west corner.

Rubble walls with stone dressings, stone tiled roofs, some minor renovations. An outstanding building. <4>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25 inch scale map, OS 25" 1927 (Map). SDO18020.

(ST 69521764) Manor House (NR)

<2> DOE (HHR), 1951, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: Sherborne Rural District Amendment October 1951, 27 9/2 (Scheduling record). SDO17519.

<3> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 2, 236-238, plan photos (Monograph). SDO136.

'(2) The Manor House (69521764), 100 yds. N.W. of the church, is of two storeys with attics.; the walls are of rubble with ashlar dressings and the roofs are covered with stone-slates. The property was bought by Richard Long in 1428, and in the 16th century it passed from his family to the Hannams (Hutchins IV, 144). The main block of the house, comprising the great hall with an E. porch and oriel bay, and with cross-wings at the N. and S. ends, was built towards the end of the 15th century ; the east wall of a small room that projects S. at the eastern end of the S. cross-wing is probably of slightly later date. The original westward extent of the S. cross-wing is uncertain but it is probably marked by a thick wall on the E. of the present kitchen passage. In the second half of the 16th century the E. side of the hall was remodelled to form a continuous E. front (Plate 196) the space between the oriel and the porch being filled in and the front being faced with ashlar. Late in the 16th or early in the 17th century the S. cross-wing was extended to the W., with two small S. bays projecting in correspondence with that of the 15th century on the E. To the same period belongs the W. extension of the N. cross-wing, the original N. cross-wing then being reroofed in continuation of the line of the hall roof. Minor alterations, probably of the first half of the 19th century, include a doorway in the N. wall of the hall and a wall in the southern part of the hall replacing the former screens; a corridor leading to the S. wing form the W. end of the screens-passage is also probably of this period. In recent years the house has been carefully restored and the large W. window of the hall has been reconstructed.

The house is of considerable architectural interest; it retains the original open roof of the hall (Plate 194), and original wagon roofs in two first-floor chambers'.

<4> Phillips, A S, Various, Field Investigators Comments ASP, F1 ASP 17-NOV-77 (Unpublished document). SWX3817.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 199328 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 22 2023 11:18AM